


Giving Him Back

by whitenoiseghost



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Banter, Feelings, M/M, One Kiss, Rating is almost entirely for the foul language, bad language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-06
Updated: 2016-06-06
Packaged: 2018-07-12 14:21:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7108786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whitenoiseghost/pseuds/whitenoiseghost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It always hurts to see him go.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Giving Him Back

**Author's Note:**

> Written for megneato on tumblr.

_They had been arguing… They had always had disagreements but more and more towards the end they would turn to uncivil shouting- to cursing- to blows. There had been so many small betrayals it was like being blasted with sand on a windy beach, innumerable tiny hurts that all seemed to meld into one blanket sting; easy enough to ignore after so long suffering it. Still, such constant subtle battery was the force that eventually wore away the hardest stones, sculpting them into tortured spires before razing them completely. What could the will of one man amount to against something like that?_

_Not much in the end._

_The explosion had very nearly killed them both and they argued over it even as they healed; their mediator; serene and long-suffering, buffering their anger; opaquing the partition between their sterile rooms when they could no longer stand the sight of one another. Only when news of their official deaths and the imminent dissolution of everything they had known for nearly a quarter century reached them did they finally stop._

_Reyes’ rebellion had been real, but the bomb which destroyed the Swiss Headquarters was, according to him, supposed to have been a smokescreen; a coverup to explain the Strike Commander’s death and to destroy evidence pertaining to various crimes committed by Blackwatch. It was only a timing error that resulted in them both being caught in its blast. Jack more suspected sabotage on Blackwatch’s end but it mattered little who had caused the unplanned detonation or why. Gabriel Reyes had intended to kill him and they both knew it._

_Angela knew it._

_But then again she knew many things and kept her own secrets. The brightest lights always cast the deepest shadows… It was for her sake only, that they began to talk to one another civilly. And after a time without the pressure of leadership; of negative press on Jack; without the poisonous coercion from within the Blackwatch branch on Gabriel, they began to reach something of an understanding._

_It wasn’t trust and neither of them could claim they felt the same things for each other as they had when they were young but Jack had a fondness for Gabriel that even his old friend’s anger and jealousy and murderous intent had, for some reason, not managed to fully kill. So Jack made peace with it and moved on and eventually left to track down the origins of the conspiracy that had destroyed everything he loved while Reyes remained in Angela’s care. Ironically his injuries had been much more severe than Jack’s and the experimental treatment which had ultimately saved his life had come with serious complications._

_And in time Gabriel also vanished._

_As Mercy told it, his cells had responded unpredictably to the treatment which saved his life, entering a state of heavy deterioration but simultaneously regenerating themselves. This created a huge metabolic drain that she could not undo with her current knowledge and accepting that he would not have long to live he had gone after those he suspected to be part of the Blackwatch conspiracy._

_It was years before either of them saw Gabriel Reyes again and in that time many things had changed._

~O~

The sudden shift in atmosphere was nearly palpable, altering the physics of the air and acoustics inside the room although no sound accompanied it.

It began as a jittery tingle in his chest and stomach, a feeling like too much caffeine, like fatigue toxin and starvation; like a slow death from thirst. He shifted in his crouch, rolling forward onto one knee as he continued to scan the empty horizon through a busted out window, marking a steady increase in his heart rate as his fortified body ratcheted up its metabolism to compensate for the drain.

To his back and left, the rough floorboards dissolved with a sinister hiss as the apparition rose, solidifying its body to whatever extent that was still possible. He did not turn to look even as filaments of black smoke drifted into his peripheral vision, the proximity detector on his HUD flaring red, flashing HOSTILE CONTACT. _Still calibrated for surveillance, it’d need to be reset before battle..._

The hand which fell suddenly and heavily upon his shoulder felt real enough but the old Soldier didn’t startle; only inclining his head in acknowledgement as the gleaming talons tightened briefly before relaxing; withdrawing.

He rather wished he could have felt it through the body armor.

“You came.” His own voice felt rough, sounded like he’d been shouting; screaming himself hoarse, and it wasn’t a question, nor even a statement; just a greeting, familiar and well used, if a bit gruff.

It was what the ghost would expect.

“We shouldn’t meet this way...” The reply was unreal in the stillness and dust, as if the words were pulling themselves together the way their speaker’s body did, coalescing  from nothing. They echoed alarmingly in the small room, filtered by Reaper’s mask and further strained through the amplifiers in his own headset.

It was still _his_ voice…

“But you came anyway…” _It was forgone really…_ Soldier 76 pushed himself up to his feet and finally faced his companion. The other stood silently, his burly arms folded across his armored chest; stance impassive and for a moment they simply stared at one another.

If Reaper was armed, his weapons were nowhere in sight and Soldier 76 loosened his hold on the pulse rifle he carried, dropping it to his side with a groan of effort. He leaned it against a rickety chair, fighting back a wave of fatigue and dizziness. Resisting Reaper’s leaching effect was tiring and he knew the other could drain a fresh kill of its residual energy in a matter of seconds, using it to bolster his ravenous regeneration.

Nearness to the mercenary took its toll on living tissue as well.

“We gotta make this quick old man, I don’t want… I want you to-” Reaper sighed, cursing in irritation as he let his arms unfold and fall to his sides, seeming to become engaged in a staring contest with a stain on the floor, the dark eye sockets of his mask betraying nothing.

“Gabrie-”

Reaper’s head snapped up with a grating snarl, his taloned hands clenching into tight fists at his sides and Soldier 76 pulled up short. The other shook his head after a tense second and seemed to forcibly uncurl his fingers before turning away.

“I told you not to call me that.” The tone, low with warning, held no anger. “Gabriel is dead. He’s gone.”

“Not to _me_ .” Soldier 76 murmured as Reaper growled again. “ _Never_ to me…”

“Goddammit. Why are you like this?” Gabriel rounded on him, throwing his hands up in frustration, dark smoke beginning to curl around his boots as if it were a presence with its own mind. Even as it whispered across the floor toward him, reaching out in sickly tendrils, Soldier 76 stood fast, unperturbed.

“I’m not gonna call you _Reaper_ you stubborn prick, we’ve had this conversation before.” The old soldier groused, assuming the same fold-armed pose Reaper had recently abandoned and canting his head defiantly. “You are not _that_ …” He gestured inclusively, indicating Reaper’s masked visage. “We’re both dead, so fucking what?” Again they simply stared each other down.

The masks made it easier.

He was a little surprised when Reaper broke the hard silence between them first, muttering, “So this is how it’s always gonna be huh? Two old assholes having a the same argument in the middle of Goddamned nowhere because you can’t let me go? That’s really fucked, Jack.”

“That’s the spirit, shithead. See? Wasn’t so hard was it?” He chuckled as Gabriel spat another curse and stomped over to the broken window, leaning out to survey the moonlit scrubland.

“I fucking hate you. You’re the worst. I’ve got half a mind to just haunt your ass until you drop dead from old age, you fuck. I figure it’d take about six years if I never left your side.”

“That’d be a fine way to go Gabriel.” Jack laughed again, leaning back against the window frame across from his hooded companion. “I don’t know about ‘never leaving my side’ though, I recall quite clearly, bivouacking with you back in the day. You’re a fucking blanket hog.”

Gabriel groaned in annoyance, leveling the best withering glare he could manage while wearing an expressionless mask at the old Soldier. It had little effect. “You’re fucking impossible…” Gabriel gave up and reached beneath his hood to unclasp his mask, letting it fall forward into his hands as he then pushed the hood back and down.

He looked terrible.

“You look good Gabe.”

“Oh fuck you Morrison... You’re such a God-awful liar...”

Jack let that go in favor of sinking down to the weathered, broken floorboards. His muscles burning as if he’d been distance running. He glanced up to where Gabriel appraised the single unstable looking chair. Seeming to decide that there was no way it would take his weight, he also lowered himself onto the floor. “Take off that mask you asshole.” He grumbled petulantly, gesturing with one clawed finger and Jack moved to comply, raising his hands in acquiescence.

His mask undocked from the rest of his headpiece with a mechanical click and Jack pulled it off and away, setting it aside and looking finally to his old friend with a lopsided smile, the scar which diagonally bisected his mouth pulling it a little off plumb.

“I keep forgetting how fucking old you are.”

Gabriel smirked while Jack swore creatively at him, the smile widening until his equally scarred face finally split into a triumphant grin which was so like the one Jack remembered from their youth that for a moment he saw past the deep shadows around Gabriel’s eyes, the hollow sunken cheeks and the smudges of what looked like fine ash on his dusky skin. He forgot the time-muted pain and disbelief of betrayal and saw Gabriel again as he did when they were fresh off the battlefield after pulling out a victory for their team; for Overwatch; for the World.

Jack could forgive anything for a smile like that.

“You’re gorgeous Gabe.” Jack sighed as Gabriel flipped him off, a flash of lethal steel claws in the dim light. As amusing as it was to bait the man, they did have business to discuss and limited time.

“I heard about the recall.” He side-eyed his companion as the man rumbled a noncommittal affirmative. “Of course I’m off the official roster on account of my untimely demise but I still have sufficient connections to get important news like that…”

“Angela?” Gabriel scraped a single talon along a deep crack in the floor absently.

“You’re goddamned right Angela.” He growled, grimacing as Gabriel flinched away minutely, softening his tone and murmuring, “She.. uh.. She treated Winston’s injuries… He’s gonna be fine. Just some minor electrical burns and broken toes. His armor absorbed most of the damage.” He concluded as his companion nodded, still gazing at the floor; at his own clawed hands.

“I did my best to make it look good for the Talon grunts I had with me… On the off chance that any of ‘em manage to survive, they have to believe… They have to trust me or this will all be fucking worthless in the end.” He trailed off, looking up again, their eyes meeting. Gabriel’s looked furtive, haunted; the ghost scaring itself to death. “I can’t throw every job like that one Jack… Too many botched missions and Talon will catch on.” He huffed out a humorless laugh.

“I’m hardly any better Reyes…”

Gabriel actually laughed out loud. “Yeah I heard! Breaking and entering, theft of military hardware, assault on Helix Security forces, vigilante justice?” Gabriel barked. “Being dead has really done wonders for _your_ sense of propriety…”

“Oh shut up..” He smirked.  “Asshole.” He sobered quickly enough, glancing over to study Gabriel’s shadowed face. It was still strange seeing him like this. It had been so long between Gabriel’s disappearance and Reaper’s emergence that Jack had mourned and accepted that he was gone, given what Mercy had said about his condition.

He never expected to see Gabriel again, and certainly not in his current state. The message from Angela was the last thing he ever thought he’d receive.

_‘Reyes is back. I need to meet with you in person. Contact me. Urgent.’_

He’d pretty much abandoned expectations at that point along with any notion he’d previously entertained about the nature of fate. And here they were. Reaper was a mercenary; a terrorist. Soldier 76 was a fugitive from justice and a wanted man in several countries and he was sure that, if asked, the public would condemn his actions as thoroughly as his companion’s regardless of their goals. But despite all of that and perhaps because of everything that had passed between them in all the many years their lives had been entwined, they still wanted to see each other.

“We… We’re not gonna be able to come back from this. Win or lose we’re fucked…” Gabriel’s sigh matched his.

“Looks that way.”

Jack snorted. “Well I guess I could always take you up on that ‘killin’ me softly’ arrangement you suggested earlier…” He chuckled as Gabriel frowned. “What did you say? Six years? We could disappear… Find a little place…”

“You’re such a prick Morrison, I don’t know why I bother.” Gabriel bit out sourly but there was a smirk in his tone.

“You know why…”

“Yeah, I know why…” He shifted again, releasing a hidden clip inside his gauntlet and sliding one of his clawed, armored gloves off. “You’re turning into a real sentimental asshole you know that?”

“Wasn’t I always?”

“Yeah you always were and it was always annoying as shit.”

“Only because it was so contagious.” Jack half smiled, rolling his head back against the rough splintered wall and closing his eyes. They felt heavy and itchy.

I wish I could have remembered that when it mattered…”

“It _still_ matters Gabe.”

“God _dammit_ … You really never give it a rest do you? I think if you stopped fighting, _ever_ , the world would literally come to an end.” Gabriel grumbled sardonically and Jack tried to find rage in his words; searched for the derision and the tension he had heard more and more near the end of Overwatch but it was not there. Instead he heard resignation and pride, determination and something like hope.

“Same as you buddy…”

Gabriel hummed, nodding minutely. “So what’s next?”

“Depends.. What do you have?” Jack shook himself to dispel his fatigue. He’d ingested about six times his daily caloric requirement and taken some metabolic boosters that Mercy had given him when she learned he’d been meeting with Reyes in person. It helped, but the physical drain was still noticeable.

He looked over and Gabriel straightened, seeming to sense his renewed urgency, pulling a holographic tablet from inside his coat and tapping it with his ungloved fingers.

After a moment he handed it over.

“It’s a giant clusterfuck, but we can use it.” He folded his arms behind his head and leaned back as Jack perused the contents of the files. Mostly reports on Talon activities and assets as well as leads on the locations of known ex-Blackwatch double agents. Jack paused, tapping the screen to bring up the holographic emitter. Brilliant projected hardlight knit itself into a three dimensional cycling image which he nudged with a finger. It rotated slowly. He frowned, vaguely recognizing a few of the names if not the faces.

“Before I was ‘recruited’ by Talon I managed to locate and kill off several of their sleepers and plants from the old Overwatch. Most of ‘em were Blackwatch but at this point that’s hardly surprising. I don’t think they ever caught on that it was anything but random revenge killing but who knows? They might have come after me just to stop me murdering their agents.” He laughed bitterly and Jack snorted in agreement.

“But at the time I was running on empty… I thought I only had a month? A week? Days even? Before my regeneration burned me down to ashes…” He suddenly sounded so hollow that Jack thumbed away the hologram and started to set the tablet aside.

“Gabe-”

“No I- I wanted to talk to you about this before… Never seemed like we had enough time…” He blinked rapidly, dark eyes gleaming in the dimness. “I was a shadow Jack… I was burning through around _sixty_ _thousand_ calories a day and it still wasn’t enough to keep me from wasting away. Mercy did what she could… had me in cryo half the time trying to find a way to fix what she’d done to me…” He growled, dropping his face into his ungloved hand and pushing his fingers up through his hair.”

“She saved your life.”

“I never asked her to do that!” Gabriel spat but his fury was muted, pale. Still Jack’s chest felt tight; the walls suddenly too close; the air too heavy and still.

“I know…” He murmured after a moment. “ _I_ did.”

Gabriel seemed to crumple then, shoulders bowing under a weight too heavy for any one person to bear; the chaos he’d caused, the deaths... Gabriel Reyes done so many unforgivable things but despite that, Jack ached with the desire to reach out, to comfort, to apologize… but as quickly as it had come over him, the shadow seemed to lift and Gabriel scrubbed his hand over his face, tilting his head until his neck cracked audibly.

He turned to Jack with a subdued but genuine smile and Jack thought that he must have been wearing his every emotion on his face because Gabriel reached out and gripped his shoulder, giving it a slight jostle, smirking.

“What’s the matter? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Jesus Christ Reyes… _Really?_ ” Jack grumbled and picked the tablet back up, shaking his head as his companion laughed lowly. He read the report on Talon’s involvement in the current Omnic uprising in Russia in silence and Gabriel seemed almost to doze, propped against the wall across from from him, arms folded across his chest.

As he finished up, the tablet chirped in his hand and Jack jumped, startled as Gabriel opened his eyes and leaned toward him. An encrypted message popped up over the text and he handed the unit back over, waiting as Gabriel activated a decryption program and then tapped out a reply.

“You need to go?” Jack folded his hands in his lap as Gabriel finished typing and tucked the pad away inside his long coat.

“Nah… It was Mercy. She wants me to come in for some tests… Whenever I can safely get there. Probably won’t be for a while… I mean with the recall and all.” He shrugged.

Jack hummed, nodding vaguely. “I love how only two people on the ‘good’ side know you’re alive but an entire terrorist organization does. Why haven’t they sold you out yet?” Gabriel rolled his eyes, sliding down the wall and crossing his ankles. He stretched his arms overhead languidly, cracking his knuckles.

“Please, Talon doesn’t _need_ to be any cozier with world government. You _know_ how deep this runs. Turning me over would gain them nothing they don’t already have. I’m safe in their fold as long as they don’t start to suspect my true motives…” Gabriel glowered. “And even if they did eventually figure it out, they’ve gone and made me un-fucking-killable.”

 _Ah_ \- there was the bitterness and rage. It hadn’t gone, merely found a new target. That intensity, he’d felt its power before. It was that force of devastation which had scorched him to the core and pulled the sky down upon him. Jack shivered.

It hurt, knowing how long Talon’s con had run; how easily they and the others in Overwatch had been manipulated and turned against each other. He and Gabriel, close for _years_ had fought each other; _hated_ each other; the sham of his promotion over Reyes engineered from the start to form a rift between them. That combined with the shady nature of Blackwatch fulfilled Talon’s every wish for deep-cover agent placement.

He wished desperately that Gabriel had not also been so complicit in it at the time; that there was some way the horrors the Blackwatch unit was responsible for perpetrating were somehow happening out of its commander’s sight and influence…

But that was not the case and he was just as much to blame as Gabriel ultimately. He had signed off on their budget proposals and asset requisitions, purposefully ignoring the obscurity of planned allocation. He had approved their shadow operations in countries where overt Overwatch presence was not tolerated.

At the time he had told himself it was for the greater good, that such tactics were sometimes necessary… They were both equally culpable.

And it was terrifying to think how much they still didn’t know about the conspiracy which had ultimately brought them all to ruin. But that was why they were both here. Jack would continue to draw attention out in the open, looking for information in their old bases and hideouts and Gabriel would blend into the ranks of their enemy, learning their secrets and sabotaging their interests from within.

“When this is over, Angela will find a way to help you Gabe. I know she won’t give up until she comes up with a way to reverse what those Talon fucks did to you… and what _she_ did to you...  Between her and Winston I know they can solve this.” Jack got to his feet with effort, the wearying effect of Gabriel’s presence making him momentarily dizzy. He gripped the rung-back of the chair for support as he stumbled, and instantaneously Gabriel was there, steadying him with a touch more gentle than he would have expected.

Gabriel spoke over Jack’s shoulder, still gripping his upper arms. “Not sure Winston’s gonna be too keen on helping me after everything I’ve done… Mercy’s one thing… It’s just not in her nature to ignore suffering, regardless how little I deserve to be forgiven.”

“Winston’s ok…” Jack felt dull, tired. The closeness of Gabriel’s armored body was strangely soothing despite what he was saying. They both knew it was true anyway.

I’m not even talkin’ about what I did to him at Gibraltar, Jack...That’s just icing on the shit cake.…” He paused squeezing Jack’s shoulders lightly, carefully. “Anyway, it was the only way I could think of to force him to initiate the recall. He needed to believe they were all in danger to do it. He needed to believe that Death was hunting them... Tracer, Mercy, _everyone_ … I gave him a reason good enough to start Overwatch operations illegally. Without government oversight it will easier to draw new blood to the fight. For this to succeed we need uncompromised heroes that Talon hasn’t touched. People who don’t already have blood on their names. Wildcards.”

On a selfish whim Jack leaned back against Gabriel, finding comfort in that solidity even as his very cells burned with the need to escape; to put distance between them.

He ignored the ache and sighed in contentment as Gabriel drew him back more firmly with one large arm across his chest; dangerous looking talons splayed tenderly over his heart. He let his head fall back onto Gabriel’s shoulder, fighting the effect for as long as he could; his heart hammering against his ribs like a panicked moth in a jar; beating itself to pieces.

Placing his own hand over Gabriel’s, he sighed deeply. “You’re doing the right thing Gabriel. No one could ask any more of you.” He felt the body pressed so close behind him shiver.

Eventually they separated, Gabriel sheepishly retrieving his glove from the floor and slipping it back on, locking the coupling into his heavy gauntlet. He picked up his mask and held it before him, studying its empty eye sockets.

“I should go Jack… It’s not good for you- spending so much time near me…”

“Just a little longer…” Jack leaned casually against the splintered wall, smirking as Gabriel huffed.

“One day I’m gonna be the death of you Morrison.”

“Probably…”

“I’m serious Jack. Every minute you spend with me shortens your fucking life!”

“Worth it.” He grinned and Gabriel looked to the broken ceiling of the abandoned shack as if beseeching God for strength.

“I swear to fucking Christ Morrison…”

“C’mere, before you put that Goddamn mask back on..” He reached out as Gabriel approached him, hooking fingers over the smooth edge of his chest plate and pulling until they were pressed solidly against each other. Gabriel’s hand came up and collided with the rough planks to one side of his head, talons biting into the wood, raking furrows into its surface. They locked eyes briefly before Gabriel’s slid down to his scarred lips and the man dipped his head to seal his own over them. Jack drew him down harder with a firm hand curled around the back of his neck, the other fisted into the thick leather of his coat. Jack’s pulse surged again and a pleasant weightless feeling suffused his body; _so much like old times…_

It was a long moment before they pulled away from one another and when they did, it was only their lips that parted. Gabriel just continued to lean into him, pressing their foreheads together, their rapid breaths mingling between them. Jack was shaking from the intensity of it and rather felt like he might pass out.

He could attribute _that_ to any one of Gabriel’s effects on him. Some things never fucking changed.

Slowly Jack relaxed his grip on Gabriel’s coat, releasing him and the man pushed himself back with a reluctant groan as Jack wilted against the sagging wall, blinking great blind blotches out of his vision as the sensation of faintness passed.

“Wow Gabe” He breathed. “You really weren’t kidding about doing me in.”

“Oh shut up, you asked for it…” Gabriel shifted awkwardly on his feet and Jack smirked, eyeing him up with little discretion.

“Next time we’re definitely not gonna talk so damn much.”

Gabriel shoved his mask back on and yanked his hood up. “Fuckin’ hell Morrison…” Jack just smiled wider.

He was more than willing to pay the physical price for this. Despite the negative effect on his health and lifespan it was good for both of them. Less about sharing information and more about simply exchanging humanity. Gabriel’s role was dangerous and difficult and extremely emotionally taxing but Jack would talk him back to himself as many times as it might take; until this was all over, way or another.

“Jack…?” Gabriel seemed to falter, unsure of himself and Jack drifted forward, away from the wall. He felt lightheaded and luminous orbs had begun to flash in his vision. Gabriel’s back was to him now. _When had he turned?_ The armored spine of his coat glimmered in the predawn gloom. “I’m so sorry…”

“What for Gabriel? Jack hummed. _He was so tired._

“For everything… for my jealousy… my stubbornness… my stupid damned blindness… I tried to fucking _kill_ you for fuck’s sake and you’re still- I just- If I could go back…” He reached out and curled his hand into a loose fist as if trying to grasp something intangible before dropping it back to his side and turning so that they were again face to face. “It seemed so clear back then you know? I never even considered that we were in the wrong. I was so furious at you for always being in the spotlight, always the hero everyone saw, golden and perfect. I was so angry because I was the one soaking in the shit to get those results. I thought I could take what you had built and make it more effective, circumvent all those pesky UN regulations and extend our reach and influence to the whole world. I- It’s no excuse but you know how it is…? Being a soldier? You start to think that everything you do is justified as long as peace is the ultimate goal… You can do anything- the most horrible things… What’s to stop you becoming a monster if those are the terms? What is the peace you fought for worth if all it amounts to is people refraining from violence out of fear?” He slumped, hands curling into tight fists at his sides. “I still try to tell myself that Talon turned me into this...” He made an encompassing gesture toward himself. “But I was a monster long before they got ahold of me… Only difference is now I look the part.”

Jack’s eyes stung, his chest ached and his tongue felt thick in his mouth. it was nothing to do with his physical condition.

“Gabriel…” He rasped brokenly. “You’re not a monster. The truly evil don’t feel remorse. They don’t put themselves at risk attempting to make things right. Monsters don’t care but you _do_ Gabriel. You’re playing a vital part here! You know? And no matter what went down in the past, no matter what you have to do and say when you’re undercover... You are not Reaper, Gabriel. You’re _you.”_ He chewed at his lip as Gabriel’s masked face lifted to regard him more steadily. “Overwatch- _our_ Overwatch is gone. It’s in the past and we can’t go back in time- I mean, not unless Winston’s been _really_ busy in the lab…” He chuckled weakly and Gabriel folded his arms across his broad chest, looking nonplused by his attempt at humor. Jack sighed, nudging some dust around with the toe of his boot. “I don’t think either of us were ready to hear the truth back then. I was just as blind, just as stubborn. I was so focused on protecting the image of Overwatch, on polishing the emblem that I couldn’t see the way it was crumbling under my hands… They knew our strength as a unit and made sure to break it… to weaken us. Back then we were separated, but now… We’re in this together”

“You always were the master of the pep talk Morrison…” The bone white mask tilted to a sardonic angle and Jack snorted but his cheeks warmed a little with pride at those words.

“I’ll be in touch Gabe… Meet again in a month or so. I’ll post the date and coordinates in the usual place using encryption key seven alpha echo niner. Got it?” The mask bobbed exaggeratedly and Jack rolled his eyes. “Go… before I do something stupid to keep you here…” Gabriel nodded again a little less sarcastically, stepping back as dark vapor began to seep from him, obscuring more and more of his form as his body dissolved into smoke.

“See you in the news Jack -ass.” Gabriel’s voice was distorted almost beyond recognition but Jack still laughed, waving as the leering deathmask finally evaporated and the cloud drifted sinuously away through the gaping broken window, leaving him alone in the quiet.

“Yeah you probably will…”

Jack collapsed in exhaustion, propping himself up against the wall once more and setting up a biotic field unit. He fished a high calorie ration bar from his pocket, nearly too tired to eat it but as his body absorbed the field’s brief surge of energy he felt strength return to his aching muscles and overworked heart. As the minutes passed and his body recovered, Jack turned to face the broken window, studying the lightening horizon. He felt physically better being away from Reyes but it wasn’t something he was ever emotionally prepared for. He’d grieved the loss of that man more times than he cared to think upon, but on days when he was being particularly honest with himself he could admit how fucked up it was.

Gabriel Reyes was not a _‘good guy’_ , not anymore and not for a very long time. Maybe he never really had been. Maybe neither of them ever really had been. Jack had already forgiven him so much, he really didn’t want to explore the question of his limits concerning Gabriel. It was probably a dark mirror that he wouldn’t enjoy seeing himself reflected back in.

But he was too old and too resigned to try denying his own faults which were numerous and the biggest was probably his inability to let Reyes go. Whatever happened, however they changed as people Jack knew that one thing would always remain the same. Jack Morrison could admit to that selfishness and he did, every time they parted ways again.

It hurt, giving him back; seeing him leave.

It hurt so much.

Getting to his feet, Jack sealed his mask back into place, noticing when his HUD came online that he had a message on the secure channel. At his spoken command it opened.

_-You should answer the call Jack-_

_-R_


End file.
